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Analysis Of Sappho's Poetry

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What one can discern by this evidence is that on the one hand curses were highly formulaic and that even the curse-tablets were probably accompanied by oral prayers, incantations and invocations, thus they were rooted into the oral tradition. They are also caught into a complex intertextual web (epic discourse, prayer, iambus) when they are incorporated into archaic Greek literature. On the other hand, the practicing of cursing (either in poetry or in real life) seems to be common even during the archaic age, especially when it concerned the matters of the heart. It will not be a big surprise if Sappho’s work was affiliated with curses. In the next part of this article I will examine Sappho’s poetry having this assumption in mind. Sappho’s curses It is evident that the practice of cursing in ancient Greece could involve the performance of a song. It was not an unusual practice to perform a song while or after inscribing a curse-tablet or to perform or to compose (or even to write down) a curse in verses, thus a literary curse. If we suppose that Sappho borrowed some elements of other literate curses or of the language of magic and curse-tablets, then the similarities between her compositions and curses (literary or not) should exist at the level of content and form. Nevertheless, there also must have been an occasion (a real life occasion or a fictional occasion) where she could have performed her ‘curses’. 1) Sappho’s occasion It is possible that the work of any archaic

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